Lundin wrapping up Edvard Grieg transaction

Swedish independent oil company Lundin Petroleum has resolved on the new shares issues and share transfer to Norwegian oil major, Statoil, in order to complete the Edvard Grieg field stake acquisition.

Statoil already previously acquired 37,101, 561 shares in Lundin Petroleum at a total purchase price of approximately SEK 4.6 billion ($539 million) in January 2016.

Lundin Petroleum announced on May 3 that the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lundin Norway, had entered into an agreement with Statoil to acquire Statoil’s entire 15 percent interest in the Edvard Grieg field in PL338, offshore Norway.

The deal also included all associated assets, more precisely, nine percent interest in the Edvard Grieg oil pipeline and a six percent interest in the Utsira High gas pipeline.

The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy gave its approval for the deal on June 1, immediately after Lundin gave its approval during an EGM on May 30.

Following the decisions made on the EGM on May 30 and in consideration for the acquisition of the assets, Lundin’s Board of Directors has agreed on Wednesday to issue to Statoil 27,580,806 new shares in Lundin Petroleum based upon an agreed average share price of SEK 138 per share and an SEK/USD exchange rate of 8.098.

The Board also decided to transfer 2,000,000 shares from the treasury and to issue 1,735,309 new shares to Statoil in exchange for a cash consideration based on a share price of SEK 145.66 per share.

Following completion of the transaction, Lundin Petroleum will have 340,386,445 shares outstanding. The dilution amounts to approximately 8.6 percent of the number of shares in Lundin Petroleum.

The transaction is expected to be completed on Thursday, and the shares will then be registered on or around July 1, 2016.

The result of the transaction sees Statoil owning 68.4 million shares of Lundin Petroleum, corresponding to 20.1 percent of shares and votes and Lundin owning 65 percent interest in the Edvard Grieg field with Wintershall and OMV holding 15 and 20 percent interest, respectively.